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Tim Butcher’s device in The Trigger is to follow in the footsteps of Gavrilo Princip, the triggerman in the plot to murder Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in June 1914.

Butcher, a former Daily Telegraph war correspondent, followed in HM Stanley’s steps for his first book, Blood River, and in Graham Greene’s for his second, Chasing the Devil, so he knows a thing or two about footsteps.

Readers of the earlier tales will recognise the venturesome tone of The Trigger, even if the derring-do is more muted this time. They will also learn a lot about why Bosnia dragged the

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Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip, right, is captured by police after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, June 28, 1914

2014-05-05 00:01:00.0 AP

Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip, right, is captured by police after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, June 28, 1914

2014-05-05 00:01:00.0 AP

Tim Butcher concludes the world went to war in 1914 because of a lie, when a teenage assassin fired the fatal shot that sparked the conflict